"Darned right. What other item can you think of that fits this tower
any better? We've run down a dozen ideas, but this works. We may be
arrested for wrecking Lincoln Head, but we'll get out as soon as this
dingbat hits the market. Brother, what a find!"
"Fellows, I think you can make your announcement now," smiled
Christine. "They won't burn you at the stake if you can bring electric
power on a beam of pure nothing. This time you've hit the jackpot!"
* * * * *
It is six thousand Terran Years since Sargon of Akkad held court that
was lighted by torch. It is six thousand years, Terran, since Than
and Altas replaced the link in a power system that tied their cities
together.
It is six thousand years since the beam tower fell into the Red Desert
and the mighty system of beamed power became lost as an art. But once
again the towers dot the plains, not only of Mars, but of Venus and
Terra, too.
And though they are of a language understood by the peoples of three
worlds, the manuals of instruction would be as cryptic to Than as his
manual was to Barney Carroll and Jim Baler.
People will never learn.